Traffic safety for sale?

A mail truck rounds the corner of Graveley Street and West Keith Road — one of the worst intersections for speeding in Pemberton Heights, according to residents.

Todd Coyne photo

In a move that critics say is a step towards privatizing public safety, the District of North Vancouver voted Monday in favour of allowing residents to buy their own traffic speed bumps, crosswalks and roundabouts for their neighbourhood.

District council voted 4-2 to approve third reading of a local improvement cost-sharing bylaw that would let residents pay for traffic calming measures on their own street if two thirds of their neighbours supported it.

Mayor Richard Walton was absent from the vote on Monday, with Coun. Robin Hicks acting in his place.

If it passes final approval at the next council meeting, the district will still reserve the right to make any alterations to any district road it chooses and would still implement traffic calming where it deemed it a public safety issue. But if a group of residents wanted speed bumps along a road that the city had not deemed a priority, those residents would have the option of buying them with a property tax hike.

In fact, all residents of that street would pay the bill, not just the 66 per cent who vote for it.

And traffic calming isn't cheap. The price of a single speed table, for instance, is about $8,000. The cost of a speed display sign is between $5,000 and $7,000.

Currently, the district neighbourhood with the most vocal demand for traffic calming measures is Pemberton Heights. But not all of the dozen Pemberton Heights residents who spoke at Monday's council meeting are in favour of the private-pay option.

Colin Metcalfe is a Pemberton Avenue resident and president of the Pemberton Heights Community Association.

"This is why we pay the high property taxes you expect us to pay," Metcalfe told council.

"While our neighbourhood association is generally supportive of the [changes] being considered tonight," Metcalfe said, "we remain very concerned that the district will use these changes to download the costs of traffic calming solely onto citizens rather than working with neighbourhoods to target and install traffic calming at the cost of the district."

Some Pemberton residents argued the increased through traffic in their neighbourhood was brought about by the district's densification of Marine Drive and therefore the district should foot the traffic-calming bill.

Councillors Doug MacKay-Dunn and Mike Little asked district staff whether the developers involved in the densification around Maine Drive and Pemberton Heights had not been required to pay for the traffic calming in the area in their developer agreements.

Staff said that at least $100,000 was paid by one company — Qualex-Landmark, developer of the 129-unit District Crossing — and the money was specifically earmarked for traffic improvements in Pemberton Heights.

To the apparent shock of Coun. Little, however, that money was used to primarily install a new curb along the south side of West. 17th Street.

"The green strip right along the south curb of 17th?," asked Little.

"Yep," came the staff response.

"A hundred-thousand dollars for that?," Little exclaimed.

With only $40,000 allocated to traffic calming so far in the district's 2012 proposed budget, Coun. Alan Nixon worried whether the private-pay option was only being raised because the district could no longer afford to do long and exhaustive traffic studies, favouring instead cost-free resident feedback.

"Is it the process that we feel the need to engage in that is driving the cost of traffic calming to the prohibitive levels that it has — to the point where we now say 'we can't do anything'? or 'we're not prepared to do anything'?" Nixon asked.

He contrasted the district's slow and expensive consultation process on traffic issues with the relatively snappy decision of the City of North Vancouver to install speed bumps along its portions of MacKay Road and West 22nd Street.

Nixon said the district's consultation process had tied up municipal staff "to the point that the costs become so prohibitive that we can't afford to do any more and we then look to our community neighbourhood taxpayers to pay the brunt of this process that we seem to need to do."

Under the new private plan, residents would pay for all of the costs of installation and materials while the district would still pay for any staff time required.

In the end, councillors Hicks, Little, MacKay-Dunn and Roger Bassam voted in favour of the new measure, while councillors Nixon and Lisa Muri voted against it.

If given final approval in the coming weeks, the bylaw may have different rules for residents living on collector, arterial and local roads.

If approved, district staff and council agreed to revisit the private-pay option in one year's time.

tcoyne@northshoreoutlook.com
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